21st January 2015

The one where the Isle Of Wight went ahead at the original date but to be confirmed ... This could also be the one where Ed spelled it wrong!

Ed gave a break down of the trip itinerary but I was sulking so I didn't make notes. But please pay £50 deposit by 5th February, and pay the balance 

We have now been asked to sing at Fayre in the Square next 30th May at 11.30, and also on 13th May we could possibly be singing at  All Saints on Portland. Or maybe the week before. 

Saturday 5th March is Weymouth Music Festival if we are interested and it will take place at Budmouth school. 

Kareoke Annie Lennox first up, Right By Your Side. That woke them up. Everyone wished they had brought their maracas but instead made like a farm yard in search of that Brazilian flavour. 

We nailed it. Oh yea. Yeah yeah yeah....

Elbowing that aside, we turned out attentions to One Day Like This. Ed ran the different parts and we tried to remember. I got lost somewhere in the holy cows. Sounds like the farmyard again! We also tried it A Capella! We have gone up a level, and achieved 4 part singing! 

Everyone on their feet for a run through including some acompanyment and some A Capella for the 4-part singing. Ed said this was a building up song and it needs a good poke. But not til next time. 

Life On Mars has such a short intro, we had a few goes at that until Beryl stopped getting it wrong! Perfect. Said Ed. 

Monday Momday to fit in before its time. But-whenever-Monday-comes only faster please! And it was better than last week. 

You are so fab DFS. I Love you keep singing XXXXX

 

14 January 2016

The one where it was still Happy New Year Until Februay...

Welcome back, so good of you to remember to come. The school had forgotten, but luckily we did get in. Jack was in with his post-charity hair (£175 well done Jack) and lovely Jenny was on the door again. 

Ed introduced some of our new songs and explained the words-and-music-for donations system and advised a change of date for the Isle of White trip which would otherwise clash with The Race For Life. I'm running as Queen. I'll be putting my fund raising page your way nearer the time. 

More breaking news is that Out Loud want us to squeeze onto their miniature sized stage again. Date to follow... Ed was pleased the we are still loved after not having much of Christmas presence in town this year!

A new song next, Elbow's One Day Like This, was played by Jack on the old YouTube. Throw those curtains wide!  It's one of those split up and overlap songs. It was completely new to me, I wonder where I've been? Ed found the response part too heavy so may well ask the men to switch parts and give the first part more beef. Nice. 

Plus 5 is the key for our next song, in remembrance of David Bowie, one we have sung before - Life On Mars. Ed played it on the piano to follow Rick Wakeman's fingers. After we sang it through Ed asked us to give it more tention. Grrr. Then he reminded us of the lovely harmonies. Some people might sing a big ah-ah-ahse at the end of Mars, but I might have to try not to laugh. 

Monday Monday on a Thursday! After an adventurous run-through a brave Ed decided to allocate three parts:- men, women, and everyone else. Or something like that. Things started to come together and we felt jolly pleased with ourselves. 

And finally we sang One Day Like This to finish after a quick and totally rigged vote. Everyone stood to give it some welly. 

So that's three songs and 7 days to practice them in. Have fun DFS, I love you. The blog has just entered it's 8th year. Grab a coffee sometime and read the wisdom contained therein. Love you xxxx

10 December 2015

The Most Wonderful Night Of The Year

DFS performed two Christmassy concerts this year, the first in Dorch and the second in our old haunt, at All Saints School, where it felt like we had not been for some time!

I as Carnival Queen got the greatest honour of Launching the Weymouth event, announcing Ed in true unrehearsed woffly fashion. Such fun. Another one for my bucket-list this year!

And there was some singing too. Choir sang their socks off to a packed hall, saving the seasonal jollities until the second half, if you don't count the harming solo rendition of Silver Bells in our middle section!

Fabulous raffle prizes, fun games and an auction all helped to fill our charity buckets. It was also a pleasure to don sash and crown again and help Jim with the Heads and Tails game, I know I wasn't picked for my tossing skills. I'm one-eye-sighted, so please don't throw coins at me ever! Both concerts together raised over 800 of your British pounds for our chosen charities.

A fabulous solo section this year with lots of brave and confident performers, from 7 to ... as tall as Big Ron. I pushed myself by being Sam Smith/James Bond and proved I listen when my choir master is sharing wisdom by being more careful with diction than Mr Smith. DFS has had many reminders about running words together and missing ends, over the years!

The Christmas section saw the appearance of Ben, the pesky rat. He hadn't shown up since a carol concert we performed once outside debenhams in the square. He lost his had twice but at least he knew all the words!

An equally festive encore finished the night off good and properly and I took my tired happy Fuzzies off home to bedlam. 

See you next week for carols organised by Julia and Ron, followed by Kareoke in The Golden Lion at 8pm. What to sing? I'll drop you a line then to wish you A Happy Christmas, Lots Of Love, Cat xxx

3 December 2015

The one where naughty people stay behind, and we overheated in the dining room. 

Concerts next week folks, please arrive at 6.45pm if Ed likes you and everyone else at 6.55pm please. The stage is dark and the steps are steep so it's a little hard to be seen. Everyone wants Ed to be on a step ladder so we can see him!

 Please don't come topless if your polo shirt hasn't arrived yet, and you are hoping it will be waiting for you. Did he really say that? 

Tonight's format is another complete run through, in two halves and minus the solo section. All solos are being practiced secretly, some in little rooms at Wey Valley School. 

I sat next to Jack who was juggling two lap tops and the speaker which stopped playing for reasons of its own, and lead to a lovely a Capella version of So Happy Together. 

It got its act together for Song of the Sea. Ed went over the descant part again as we had a bit of a mind-the-gap moment. 

Rosé next. Don't forget these long notes need a lot of support. Ed suggested some of us could mine and leave a gap if the air is running out. Let's hope we don't all do that. Although that would be very impressive in itself!

Medley time, we got slightly out of order but we promise we won't do that on the night! Sound Of Music precceded a break, which will of course wil happen on the night too. 

And after more waffle from Ed we dived into the second half, giving anyone who had to permission to leave at 8pm. And following Dusty we had a good talking to about not talking and laughing in between songs, even if we really are utterly-butterly surprised that we sounded half decent. So there. We have been told. 

Xmas medley next. Followed by a quick chorus of fairy tale of New York so see you all next week. Lots of love xxx

26 November 2015

The one with Ed's new jacket ...

Ed handed out a few CDs of backing tracks and thanks Fulvia for finding someone to alter his jackets to make them more musical! 

The running order for our concert is all ready, two weeks before we perform! Choir members grabbed paper copies of the Christmas medley and Ed warned us that we will be in the dining room next week. 

Next Thursday is the Xmas sing song I Chickerel library at 5pm. Mince pie folks!

Next it was time to run through our concerts, standing at the back of the hall please. 

So Happy Together

Song Of The Sea

Rosé

Lean On Me

The Sound Of music 

Total 23 minutes and 16 seconds

(Solos and Groups - to be revealed!)

I Only Wanna Be With You

Run

Christmas Medley

You Raise Me Up

And the Encore ...

Fairytale Of New York

Now let's enjoy the All Saints School Christmas tree ... 

I

And we fall off the stage to the sound of the fade out .... 27 minutes 39 seconds 

Finally we all attempt to fit on the stage because we are not so good at entrances or exits. It's also been some time since we sang on this stage! We did it all and sang a song (mostly) then I ran home to blog .... Well done DFS I love you xxx

19 November 2015

We started with some name calling. Calling out the names on official t shirts to try and match them up to choir members. Then our warm up. 

Then Ed showed off his new clean suggestion box, while waiting for a track to load. Then I daydreamed during some of the notces then woke up to requests for tins of marrofat peas! Raffle prizes to Jigsaw-Jenny please. Not long now until our concerts! Eeep!

Before Christmas we are going to set a date for taking over a karaoke bar. Not the one in Tokyo. Everyone started to shout out karaoke venues. 

We began with So Happy Together  well half of choir did and half had a think about it first! Ed encouraged us to sing over the top. I need a sheep puppet. I really do! We did it much better the second time around. 

Africa will be saved for the new year now. So after talking of doing it in the dark we slipped into The Song of the Sea. Remember there are no such things as high notes. Ed ran through the descant part, right at the top of his range. Then from the top, everyone stood to sing. This is a real crowd pleaser, I'm looking forward to hearing a happy audience talk about this one again. Takes me back to choirs youth! 

Dusty time now, with our lyrics set to Ariel Bold which is really washing powder. Es told us to learn all the words for this one. Beware of reading the page with your face down, anyway. We stood to sing this again, and it was one million times better and we can go home a treat. 

Noting like a good medley, The Sound of Music ... It's really hip and trending right now with the movie being 50 years old just like our Julie. She won't mind me saying :-). And Ed said ooooo when we finished it. Phew. Keep it up he said. 

Finally a Run with words. Now the officiall song for the happenings in Paris. So we gave it our all. I stopped to take in the last two choruses and you DFS are amazing. 

Out of time we squeezed in a Rosé in its new key. Come on. Love you lots xxxx

12 November 2015

The one with Betty ...

Ed put Betty on the Altar and explained she was not The Real Betty but a surprise present for Jenny H. If anyone wants to sing a bum note not The Real Betty can give them a rather hard stare ...

Three more practices until we have our concerts. Three! No tickets this year, just payment on the door. Then Ed let us know that we won't be doing any singing in the square because he himself isn't free. 

Jack and Ed presented the New DFS website which is supersmashing and works on phones and tablets too. 

Rosé has a new key of C+3. It was much brighter sounding but a little high for some!

Run next. Harmonies were missing so Ed ran through them again. Pardon the pun. Also a lot of people for get to sing ru-UN instead of RUN ... Then the melody all but disappeared. But oooo it did sound good!

With voices in fine form, it was time to whip through The Sound Of Music Medley. Lovely big OTT backing track which I missed last week being off sick. Take care not to slow down in places where the backing track doesn't! The ending still needs some work on those notes! So back to the piano to thrash it out! And finally .... 

Dusty time next to give us a break! Haha! I only wanna be with you, DFS. No other choir for me. Rough it up guys! Wanna not want-to!

A Capella Lean On Me was tried out last week. Ed wanted some clicks at the start and some clapping further in. 

Jack hasn't heard the special effects we do for Afrrica. It may or may not be ready for Christmas and may stay on the

Back burner with Right By Your Side ...

But we did try to impress Jack with

Our Special Effects... Then for our finale we ran through Run again ... Then we gave ourselves the clap and Ed took Betty home for some whine xxxx

22 October 2015

The Lovely Jenny was Jacks stand in, and and she promised not to play solitaire all night. 

Before any warm ups we heard from Richard from The MS Society without his official shirt. The branch we support covers Bridport, Lyme Regis Portland and some other bits. The oldest member is 104. All commitie members are volunteers, and have usually been affected by MS in some way. Richard himself has been diagnosed with the condition. All money raised goes to support anyone affected by MS. Home adaptations, FES machines to aid mobility, social outings and respite care are among supports provided by the charity. 

The disability is caused by nerve damage, and scarring in the brain. Treatments are improving with changes now that we didn't have 5 years ago. No one had any questions for Richard so he thanked us and left us to sing!

Then Ed plugged the keyboard back in so that we could warm up. Notices first. Don't come next week. That leaves 5 sessions to our concert! Ed also thanked everyone for coming to the meeting on Monday. 

Jenny shared the running order of the wedding then we all had a go of sounding like Karen. It was easier for most when Ed changed the key. He changed the key again for the middle eight without telling us but we forgave him. D+4. Oh yes indeedy. 

Next we revisited So Happy Together. Just a run through before another new song. Yes, a Christmas song! Jenny downloaded Stop The Cavalry. Luckily Julie knew how to fit many of these words in as many of us didn't. 

Time to impress Jenny with our sound effects - would be better without the giggles but still, I think Jenny felt it. Well she felt something. 

A wedding song, True Love Ways had only a link instead of a set of words. So we left that for The Sound Of Music Medley! Which we know quite well now. Jenny liked it so much she gave us the clap. And Ed gave us a bum-note warning! And mentally ordered a take away for his tea ...

And finally, Rosé, voted by us, to finish. 

I love ya! Keep singing XXXX